


The Life of the Mind

by Bobsled_Hostage



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Gen, Replay Value AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3836767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bobsled_Hostage/pseuds/Bobsled_Hostage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Response to Questions Regarding the Results of Prototype Towers Survey 40<br/>Originally written for <a href="http://eternity-braid.tumblr.com">A User's Guide to the Apocalypse</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Life of the Mind

**The Life of the Mind: Response to Questions Regarding the Results of Prototype Towers Survey 40**

_By skinnerBox_

A recent survey of Prototype Towers users[1] was the first to include a number of interesting questions by popular demand.  A number caused quite a stir upon release of the results, particularly given the breakdown by native roles of the respondents.

**39.VII.e: If you had to eliminate the native players of one Aspect, which would you select?**

The majority of roles answering did not cluster around any specific answers.  Notably, 63 percent of Mind players answered “Light.”  If you, the reader, have not read the survey results I encourage you to do so.  I would have been totally content not to write this piece, preferring to live and let live after a fashion, but a number of users have been cluttering up the subforum regarding Mind natives and our “irrational hatred” of Light players.  Either you, the reader, are already familiar with the posts in question, or are at least willing to believe me when I characterize them as such, or you refuse this classification, in which case I have nothing to offer you here.  If you accept it, the following will offer some explanation as to why the stereotypical hatred, or more accurately distrust or dislike, of Light players by Mind players is in no way “irrational.”  If you yourself have ever been a Mind player you may recognize some of the tendencies described here.  If you have ever been a Light player, again some of the material may sound familiar.

**Epistemology**

_“Light is like Mind without the autism” -wagglanGimmicks, native Prince of Light[2]_

I feel that under the circumstances it is hardly necessary to outline the differences in, say, the way a Seer of Mind versus a Seer of Light would arrive at a piece of knowledge about their respective sessions.  In brief, for anyone who refuses to consult the voluminous body of guides and other writings, the Aspect Mind encourages players to employ game abilities and a rigorous analytic framework to sort and categorize information.  Compare the Mind player to the “mentats” of the Dune universe, human computers who make predictions about the present and future by sifting through reams of data.  Inversely, the Aspect Light gifts its devotees with enlightenment in proportion to attunement to their whisperings, gifting information about the game world in a fashion that is automatically intelligible to the player.  Compare the Light player to Dune’s Kwisatz Haderach, who is able to predict the present and future through quasi-magic powers, which by his own admission do not function in a fashion comprehensible via mundane logic.  The divide has been compared to the split between analytic and continental philosophy, or to the “thinking” versus “feeling” archetypes, although the latter may be more characteristic of Mind’s twin Aspect, Fate.

Granted, according to Autogenesists/Skaian Non-Cognitivists (a clade in which I count myself a member), both are in actuality insight presented by the game through various tricks played on the senses or on the brain, and therefore the supposed differences are merely aesthetic in nature.[3]  While obviously true, it is important to remember that while their substance is ultimately the same, the way in which each Aspect deposits information has a profound impact on the worldview of its victims, specifically in the native session.[4]  It is difficult to articulate, for anyone who has not experienced it, why a Mind native would react so strongly to someone who reflexively does not think about the world in the empirical or rationalistic fashion they themselves were conditioned to employ.  In truth this may purely be an academic distinction that does not explain the feelings of most Mind players.  It does, however, feed into the next category where the two come into conflict.

**Attitude**

_“Nobody wants to ask how’s everything and hear; ‘fabulous! Things are fantastic! I feel great!’ No. You want to hear – ‘ehhhh, you know.” -Larry David_

To summarize the attitudinal differences between the two, Mind players tend more towards higher neuroticism and conscientiousness, while Light players score higher on agreeableness and openness to experience.[5]  While a surfeit of one does not necessarily imply a dearth of the other, it is unfortunately often the case.  These differences are partly the result of the diametrically opposed epistemologies embodied by the two Aspects, but are also explained in part by the way each one rewards or punishes certain behavior to sculpt their victims’ personalities, again with the effect magnified many times in the native session.  In truth I hardly think I need convince the reader that these differences are at least in part factual.  Anyone having a passing familiarity will by default be familiar with the stereotypes of the dour, withdrawn Mind native and the exultant, freewheeling Light player, both firmly embedded in replayer culture.  To a great extent both these are borne out by a sizable body of evidence, with Mind natives consistently self reporting lower levels of life satisfaction by various measures when compared Light natives, the effect being much greater in players currently rolling the Aspects.[6]

Where I was from, conventional wisdom and a limited body of research separated human beings into two groups, “morning people” and “night people.”[7]   The morning people were more alert, active and happy when they were active during the early to middle hours of the day.  The night people fared better when they were active in the later hours, or as nomenclature suggests, at night.  Due to the fact that the majority of economic activity took place during the day, the night people and morning people tended to wake up, and to be active, around the same time.  The morning people awoke every day feeling well rested, cheerful and ready to engage in productive labor.  The night people woke up miserable, and all told would not have lost much sleep if some monstrous genocide were to sweep the planet clean of the morning people, who they found insufferable.  The conflict between the two was essentially zero sum.  If working hours were to shift to a time the night people found more reasonable, the morning people would most likely have found themselves in the same position.  While Mind and Light natives are not forced to participate in the labor force together, they are forced to participate in the same sessions of Sburb.

**Damage**

_“LOOK UPON ME! I'LL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!” -John Goodman[8]_

It is common knowledge that accidental use of the ability [Endless Climb] is a formative experience for Mind natives.[9]  It is easily intuited, and moreover supported by sound statistical evidence, that most players go through their first session without any sort of contact with replayer support Networks.[10]  It is not too bold to suggest that Mind players therefore pay a high price for the lessons they acquire.  Natives are often called out for acting unnecessarily skittish, gloomy, paranoid, or for having various personality artifacts that seem silly to Light players.  It is particularly galling to hear this from someone whose formative sburb experience imparted them with the instructive moral lesson that there is no need to worry, and who were rendered basically immune to harm by their whisperings.[11]  This is obviously no excuse for a priori hostility on the part of Mind natives, especially given that there is good evidence role assignments in the native session are for the most part purely random, or at a bare minimum do not correlate to any known human personality typologies.[12]

The purpose of this piece is not grievance mongering, nor is it to offer a solution to the dilemma, which must be left as an exercise for the reader.  It is supremely unlikely that, upon reading this piece, any Mind players will find themselves overcome with love and understanding for their sister Aspect.  Writing it has certainly not had this effect on me.  If it in fact has the opposite effect, increasing animosity between the two, or has no effect at all, so be it.  If I have been unfair to my counterparts, or to my fellow natives, I am sure there are plenty of sources that provide a more balanced approach, and I would highly encourage a dissatisfied reader to seek them out instead.

**Author's Note:**

> [1] paraphrasedStygian et al. “Prototype Towers Quasi-Annual Survey” Timestamp 40  
> [2] wagglanGimmicks. “Silver Lights: Understanding the King of Aspects”  
> [3] skinnerBox. “Knight Syndrome’ Versus Baseline Levels of Replayer Mental Health”  
> [4] guidedMeditation. “The First Session: Influence of Native Classpect on Life Outcomes”  
> [5] heteronymousConstraint. “Native Aspects by Big Five Traits”  
> [6] heteronymousConstraint. “Native Aspects by Self Reported Life Satisfaction”  
> [7] Horne JA, Östberg O. "A self-assessment questionnaire to determine morningness-eveningness in human circadian rhythms". Consensus prescratch, reference version from presession designation PTe6bd8 (PrototypeTowers).  
> [8] Joel and Ethan Coen. “Barton Fink”. Presession designation PT944w5w (PrototypeTowers).  
> [9] tacitMechanism. “Endless Skies”  
> [10] thomasHobbs. “Errant Signals: First Sessioners in the Replayer Community”  
> [11] godsgifttoGrinds. “Sburb Glitch FAQ”  
> [12] guidedMeditation et al. “The First Session: Personality Typologies & Native Classpect”


End file.
